Dear Passionate Programmer,

Do you ever wish you chose a different career?

I’m a self taught dev & wanted to make something of what I learned. So I moved from a small town, landed my first tech job (!dev), but the closer I get to my goal the more worried I get.

I’m worried that making my hobby a career will eventually lead me to loathing the one thing I love. And I’m not really sure if I should stay the course or turn around in hopes to save the ship.

It's usually the other way around. You end up getting addicted to coding and if you spend a day without coding you will start to get depress.

Sounds familiar! I started coding at very young age, landed first tech job at 16 at a well known and highly respected company. Today, allready in professional software development for almost 20 years. I still love what I do however the thing that worries me is whether I'll be able to keep up in 15 to 20 years from now. Also, the job gets more and more demanding. As you gain more experience people also expect more from you.

But doing something else I also would love requires again another 4 to 6 years in university, full time. That's currently not possible as the mortgage doesn't pay itself. I am planning to retire early though by creating a steady, passive income fully online.